1952 - Random House, New York - First American Edition, First Printing

In Let It Come Down, Paul Bowles plots the doomed trajectory of Nelson Dyar, a New York bank teller who comes to Tangier ‘outpost of unrestrained freedom, morass of ruthless greed and opportunism’, in search of a different life and ends up giving in to his darkest impulses. Rich in descriptions of the corruption and decadence of the International Zone in the last days before Moroccan independence, Bowles's second novel is an alternately comic and horrific account of a descent into nihilism. [Preface]

In a bright example of the dust jacket designed by E. McKnight Kauffer, and with rather pretty letterpress Random House card from Paul Bowles editor, printed ‘Compliments of David McDowell’, laid in. More details

Price HK$ 2,000

The Hawkline Monster, A Gothic Western - with - Willard and His Bowling Trophies, A Perverse Mystery -
Richard Brautigan

1974 1975 - Simon and Schuster, New York - First Editions

Two of Brautigan’s Gothic thrillers, containing, as always, an amazing tapestry of characters, bursts of poetic brilliance, and the sadness that at the age of 49 Brautigan silenced by self-inflicted gunshot-wound.

‘All of us have a place in history. Mine is in clouds’

‘There is a real plot and a thread of continuity that runs through chunky, one-page chapters containing passages that run the gamut of style from Edgar Allan Poe to Zane Grey, from Ian Fleming to George V. This is certainly Brautigan’s most simultaneously unified and eclectic work.’ - Playboy on The Hawkline Monster. More details

A collection of Brautigan’s first three works to be published, and there is no better place to start than ‘Trout Fishing in America’ which sent him into confused stardom, apparently representing the counter-culture of the time, whilst being contemptuous of hippies. Ferlinghetti said ‘He was much more in tune with the trout in America than the people’.

TFiA is followed by his ‘Poetry’ with The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, a collection of ninety-eight poems, and finishing off with In Watermelon Sugar, a parable for survival in the 20th century, the story of a successful commune called iDEATH whose inhabitants survive in passive unity while a group of rebels live violently and end up dying in a mass suicide.

Despite our efforts above, it is not possible to really describe these three works. They are Brautigan, go with the flow... and the trout.

All of us have a place in history. Mine is in cloudsIn 1984 at the age of 49 Brautigan died of a self-inflicted gunshot-wound. More details

Price HK$ 1,500

1964 - Grove Press, New York - First Edition

‘A masterpiece of fantasy and reality, a carnival of horrors, a doomsday confrontation of man and his world.’

Burroughs ferociously political and prophetic novel – a parody of bureaucracy and human frailty, and the third in his linguistically ‘cut-up’ trilogy, following The Soft Machine and The Ticket That Exploded –fires the reader into the diabolical world of the Nova Mob, poised to wreak havoc and destruction upon the planet. Can Inspector J. Lee of the Nova Police stop them before its too late…? More details

Price HK$ 2,400

The Last Supplement to the Whole Earth Catalog - SIGNED BY KEN KESEY -
Ken Kesey et al

1971Menlo Park - First Edition

Classic Crumb with articles by Ken Kesey who has also signed the front cover. With Kesey’s articles such as “The Bible” and “The I Ching”, there is an amusing advertisment “I Use cornstarch”, as well as other articles by Paul Krassner, and McClanahan on the Grateful Dead. More details

Price HK$ 5,400

1967New York

Special Issue of the short lived Word Journal Tribune, with the Tom Wolfe article ‘the World of LSD’ which later became The Electric Cool Aid Acid Test. Also includes other articles on such luminaries as the good Doctor Leary. Signed on colour illustrated cover by Kesey & Wolfe. You just can’t find clothes or glasses like these anymore. More details